Gamer makes functioning neuron in Minecraft

A gamer has created a fully-functional virtual neuron in the popular sandbox game, Minecraft —an incredible feat that the gaming website Kotaku has already hailed as the possible beginnings of artificial intelligence.

 

Minecraft, the Lego-like sandbox game

 

Developed by Swedish programmer Markus Persson, Minecraft sets the player loose in an infinite 3D gameworld where every virtual object – from rocks to trees, from water to zombies – is composed of cubes. These cubes can be harvested and then used to build anything the player desires. Sort of like playing with Lego bricks inside your computer.

 

The game offers limitless opportunities for creativity; many players have taken advantage of this to construct astounding works of art, such as epic-scale cities, sprawling palaces, and even a replica of our very own planet, as can be see in this video:

 

 

Introducing the Minecraft neuron and its real-life counterpart

 

On March 23, a user on Reddit going by the name of AllUpInHyuh posted a link to an Imgur page showcasing his Minecraft creation – a working virtual neuron. 

 

Without elaborating, neurons are specialized cells that form the core components of higher animals’ nervous systems. The neuron’s task, in a nutshell, is to transmit information-laden electrical impulses throughout the animal’s body from one cell to another.

 

AllUpInHyuh’s virtual neuron appears to be anatomically sound, possessing structures that closely imitate their real-life counterparts. These include dendrites, which in living creatures are twig-like structures that receive information from neighboring cells; the soma or cell body into which the dendrites converge; the membrane, a thin layer that covers the cell and through which ions pass; and the axon, a long, cable-like structure projecting from the soma, down which the electrical impulse travels to be transmitted to other cells via the axon terminal at its end.

 

What makes the neuron model truly amazing, however, is that it actually seems to work, making use of “chests”, “torches”, “sprites”, “hoppers” and other such Minecraft staples to sufficiently mimic the processes that transpire inside a real neuron. Once the “dendrites” receive information, the “potassium” and “sodium ions”, in the form of blocks, pass through the “membrane”. A higher concentration of ions on the neuron side of the membrane causes the “electrical impulse” to travel down the “axon”. The impulse then reaches the “axon terminal”, where it activates the next neuron model to assume the very same process from scratch. In this way, the impulse, or information, is “transmitted” from one virtual neuron to the next. Just like in real neurons.

 

The human brain contains approximately a hundred billion neurons. By chaining up a hundred billion of these neuron models, it is therefore theoretically possible to create a virtual human brain, and perhaps even artificial intelligence.

 

The precursor of artificial life, or just a poor imitation?

 

Discussions on Reddit and elsewhere on the Net have routinely touched upon the hypothetical scenario of artificial intelligence, and consequently artificial life, stemming from the humble beginnings of the Minecraft neuron model.

 

“…the functional complexity of a Minecraft-type game (has) increased astronomically,” areyouaboyorareyou, a commenter on Reddit, said. “The implication is that we’ve just created life.”

 

“Whatever you do, don’t make one hundred billion of them together, or else you won’t be able to turn off your computer without committing murder,” said one Omni314.

 

Other responses have been less positive. “You’ve basically just made an information chain and then labeled it with neuroanatomy, nothing more,” said user Asqwasqwasqw.

 

Waja_Wabit criticized the model as a poor imitation of a real neuron due to its inability to change: “Active intelligence (and learning for that matter) requires cells with a working nucleus/golgi system that can transcribe new proteins as needed to meet a demand. This is how learning/changes in the circuitry happens. A model like this could simulate some pretty cool complex calculations, but it wouldn’t demonstrate the capacity to change its protein transcription (thus, no ‘learning’).”

 

Whatever the case, the working virtual neuron is a testimony to Minecraft’s power and efficacy not only as a creative tool, but one that could have real, practical applications in the field of science and education. — TJD, GMA News